“Icewater in His Veins”: While Doherty and Woods Were Fighting For Their Lives, Obama Was Sleeping Soundly

The biggest problem on the night of the Benghazi attack, Panetta testified, was “nobody knew really what was going on.” And why would they? After the 5:00 meeting at the White House on 9/11/12, there was no further discussion between Obama and his Defense Secretary. The President was AWOL. The Sec of State was AWOL. Everybody else was twiddling their thumbs….while minutes turned to hours and hours turned to the entire night.

While former Navy SEALS Doherty and Woods were rescuing Americans from the consulate, and later fighting for their lives at the CIA annex, Obama was sleeping soundly in his bed. He had a big campaign event in Las Vegas the next day.

There would be 32 more dead U.S.citizens if it were not for the brave actions taking by Doherty and Woods. They and a few others were the only people fighting back against the attacks on the CIA annex and the Consulate.

The Weekly Standardsums up a little bit of testimony from outbound Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that will be a mere footnote for Barack Obama, but probably would have brought down a Republican President. At 5:00 PM on the afternoon of the Benghazi consulate attack, Panetta had a scheduled meeting with President Obama… who then walked away from the whole mess and never looked back:

Panetta said, though he did meet with Obama at a 5 o’clock prescheduled gathering, the president left operational details, including knowledge of what resources were available to help the Americans under siege, “up to us.”

In fact, Panetta says that the night of 9/11, he did not communicate with a single person at the White House. The attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Obama did not call or communicate in anyway with the defense secretary that night. There were no calls about what was going on in Benghazi. He never called to check-in.

The 5 o’clock meeting was a pre-scheduled 30-minute session, where, according to Panetta’s recollection, they spent about 20 minutes talking a lot about the American embassy that was surrounded in Egypt and the situation that was just unfolding in Benghazi.

This is pretty much what we right-wing types suspected all along. Empty Chair, bumps in the road.

….And the reason for the anti-Mohammed YouTube video cover story.

They figured they could get away with it – what with our totally corrupt and Obama-compliant media. And hell – they did get away with it. Obama was reelected and one of the worst offenders in this mess is the front runner for the 2016 election. Take a bow, Candy Crowley. Your lack of professionalism and blatant bias may have cost you your job at CNN, but you were very instrumental in helping to secure the White House for your precious ones. And that’s all that really matters at the end of the day, right?

At the Conversation,Joel Pollock linked to the excellent Kyle Clark interview (KUSA, Denver), memorable because it was one of the very few times Obama actually had to field some tough questions from a hard nosed reporter. Clark wanted to know if the men were denied requests for help during the attack.

….Obama said in October that he had given “three directives” as soon as he found out “what was going on”–i.e. as the attacks were ongoing:

…the minute I found out what was going on I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure we are securing our personnel and that we are doing whatever we need to. Number two, we are going to investigate exactly what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice.

“Obama didn’t lift a finger!” He bellowed. “He didn’t give an order, he didn’t give a directive and do everything possible to help those people right now. I’m telling you right now, as somebody who worked for Ronald Reagan – Reagan would have known what assets we had out there, how quickly we can act, go protect those people, do whatever the hell you have to do – Obama didn’t do any of that!!!!”

“Our Ambassador, Americans, our consulate – under attack, fighting for their lives! And the President of the United States apparently went to sleep. Or maybe to a concert. Or maybe planning his next golf game. I don’t know. But he was AWOL.”

Panetta’s testimony directly contradicts President Obama’s own claim to have issued “three directives” as soon as he learned “what was going on” in Benghazi. As he told a Denver reporter in October:

I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure we are securing our personnel and that we are doing whatever we need to. Number two, we are going to investigate exactly what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice.

That same claim was subsequently repeated by other Democrats, including Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who came to the president’s defense. But if those directives were indeed given–and proof has never been produced–they were given long after the attack, not while the attack was going on, during which time the president did nothing.

Panetta and Dempsey also admitted, under questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), that they were not in touch with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the attacks, and did not receive a request for help from the State Department. Dempsey also testified that he had been “surprised” at Clinton’s testimony last month that she did not know of an urgent cable from Ambassador Stevens last August about the dire security situation.

To borrow a metaphor from the 2008 Democratic primary campaign: when the 3 a.m. call came (at 5 p.m. in the afternoon), neither Clinton nor Obama were there to respond.

Right now I don’t think I could find a hair width of difference between the Obama government and a third world dictatorship. The mainstream media is no more than his personal propaganda bureau. Congress is little more than a flimsy facade. Does anyone believe things are not going to get worse? While it seems improbable that Obama will be able to confiscate firearms from the populace – he still has a ace and he is playing it. Try finding ammunition for sale… I don’t believe the ‘we the people’ bought more ammunition than what was already in the distributor pipeline. Nearly every round being manufactured is scooped up by the varied government agencies that are supposed to serve us. Considering the the DHS basically functions in airports, how could they possible require the one and a half billion rounds of ammunition they purchased and have on order? What would a third word dictator do with all the ammunition being manufactured?

That testimony by Panetta and [the idiot] Dempsey yesterday was nothing less than astonishing and almost exactly what many of us have suspected since the news was first reported of the incident.

We have known for months now that the State Department was monitoring the incident “in real time” according to the testimony of Ms Lamb. We also now know that the Secretary of Defense had knowledge of the incident, but held it until his scheduled meeting with the President at the White House. Panetta informs the President and according to his testimony [Panetta] was told to “handle it”. Isn’t that rich?

The President never told the Secretary to “do what needs to be done, to assist and rescue all Americans involved, by any means necessary”. Then after being informed, never follows up with the Secretary of Defense and ask . . . . . “what is the status of our people”? No follow up questions at any time, from the President? Really? And nobody notified [according to Panetta’s testimony] or any conversation took place between him and the Secretary of State, who’s Ambassador was under attack along with her consulate? Really? Why wasn’t Hillary calling the White House requesting help or in contact with Panetta to find out what was available to assist?

No where is there any exchange between the President, the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense at anytime during the period that Americans were being attacked and murdered. Along with the Presidents personal representative Ambassador Stevens. Nobody should believe that for a second. Then Panetta claims that the Military isn’t a 911 organization. Really? What the hell are they? Meals on Wheels? If not the Military then who? Especially when Americans are under attack.

Elements of the Military are deployable within hours ‘anywhere in the world”. Nobody should believe that there wasn’t assets readily available and deployable to this situation and at the very least Air Assets that could’ve reached that area and provided assistance “while” those Americans were under attack. The only person who could’ve ordered that assistance was the President of the United States, not the Secretaries of Defense or State.

We abandoned those Americans, luckily only four were killed. Dozens were stationed at the CIA Station who were vulnerable and at risk. “Somebody” took it upon themselves and determined that “assets” wouldn’t or couldn’t reach them in time. Not knowing how long they would sustain and repel the assault. Doherty and Woods would “NEVER” had lit up targets with lasers, if they didn’t believe that “assets” were in the vicinity and ready to assist them. To do so, would put a bulls eye right on their positions.

Mark Levin has this dissected exactly right. There is a lot more to this story that needs to be exposed. Someone needs not only to accept responsibility, they need to held accountable and given consequences for their actions. This is a National disgrace of unimaginable proportions.